Across Lives
by SorellaMuse
Summary: True love doesn't let a minor thing like death and reincarnation get in its way... no matter how many lives it takes for her to be able to stay with him forever. GaLe/Gajevy AU. Demon!Gajeel.


This one shot came to me while I was in the shower at 3 am, courtesy of a Supernatural binge. I ended up loving how it turned out (unlike some of my spontaneous one shots) so here you go.

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><p>The first time she summoned him, deep in a misty forest, he laughed at her. The circle that had called him spelled death and destruction. The woman in front of him… not so much.<p>

That is, until she locked her fierce brown eyes with his crimson ones, and asked him to help her make her country bleed.

And when she was stabbed by a guard after murdering her king, he knew as she died in his arms, whispering his name, that he had loved her.

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><p>The second time she summoned him, hidden inside a wooden stable, he was ecstatic, holding her tight and swearing to never let her go again.<p>

At least, until she screamed in surprise, pushing away from him. The scream drew somber men with torches to the stable – men that called her a witch, sneering and spitting as he stood, frozen in shock.

And when the men burned down the stable around them, he watched her die again. And he knew that he was in trouble.

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><p>The third time she summoned him, circle drawn on the sheet of a hospital bed, she wanted someone to stay with her until the end. So he swallowed his pride as a warrior demon, and stayed with her. He hid in the shadows at the corners of the room, coming out when they were alone, raising her spirits after every visit of the doctors lowered them.<p>

He stayed with her as she wasted away to nothing, allowing himself to fall in love all over again.

And when she slipped away, she met his eyes – and he could see that she remembered him.

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><p>Again, and again, and again. With every reincarnation, things were different.<p>

Different worlds. Different situations. Different problems. Different circles. Different forms.

Though, some things did stay the same.

Always the same eyes, just filled with different emotions.

Always the same sky blue hair, just in different lengths and styles.

Always the same beautiful smile – sometimes more rare than in other lives.

And always, somehow, a book with a circle to call him to her inscribed within it

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><p>Sometimes, she was fighting in a war on the front lines.<p>

Sometimes, she was hiding from people who wanted to find her.

Sometimes, she wanted to change her life drastically.

Sometimes, she needed someone to be with her in a time of trouble.

Their time together could be as short as a few minutes, or as long as several years.

Sometimes she would be young. Others, old.

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><p>But every time, he fell deeper in love with her.<p>

And every time, he had his heart shattered when she died in front of him, unable to do anything to help her.

And every time, just before the end, she would remember it all. Every past life, every moment they had spent together. Every time that they had fallen in love.

And then she would smile at him, as if to reassure him that he would be okay. That she would come back again, reborn in one of the countless dimensions with links to his world.

And then she would be gone again.

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><p>Once, he knelt in the middle of a stone bridge, battle raging around them. Had it been before he had met her, he would have gladly ignored his summoner in favor of the warfare he loved so.<p>

But instead, he knelt, hand pressed to the wound on her stomach, grief clogging his throat as it had so many times before.

Soft fingers brushed his face, bringing his eyes up to meet hers – eyes gentled by the recollection of their past together.

And he was given new hope, when she told him that they were not destined to live like this for eternity – cruelly ripped apart again and again. That, at some point in one of her lives, she would not need to be near death to recall their love. And that, on the day that happened, their curse would be broken, and they would be able to be together for the rest of their very long lives.

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><p>He held onto that hope for reincarnation after reincarnation. No matter how many it took, he would wait for her.<p>

No matter how many decades, centuries, or millennia passed, he would keep going until they could be together.

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><p>The ages marched on.<p>

Life after life, they would change lives together – sometimes for the better, sometimes not. They would fall in love all over again.

He would allow himself to hope that maybe, just maybe… this time would be different. That she wouldn't die, that he wouldn't fail her.

And death after death, he would hold her lifeless body and be heartbroken all over again. He would curse the heavens, demanding to know why they were being tortured like this. He would grieve until that death was added to the dull, constant ache of their past that he carried with him.

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><p>The last time she summoned him, in a room piled high with books on every surface, he opened his mouth for his standard greeting – only to be swiftly cut off by a delicate finger pressed to his pierced lips.<p>

Eyes shining with a joyful light, the tiny, curvy woman before him, wild blue hair tamed by an orange cloth, spoke the two words that made every last second of his seemingly endless wait for her, worth it.

_"I remember._"

Laughing at his expression – a strange combination of shock, relief, and adoration – she flung her arms around his neck, giggling as he wrapped his own around her waist, burying his face in her hair and swearing to never let her go again.

And when he whisked her off to his own world, he knew that this was the happiest he had ever been, in all the eons he had existed.

Because now, he could finally _live_.

He could finally be with his love, forever and always. Inseparable until the end of time.

All because she had finally _remembered_.


End file.
